A Hosted Chat is a generated chat interface for one deployed workflow. SteelEngine serves it at a public URL, sends each message to the workflow, and streams the selected block outputs back as the reply.
Hosted Chat is not the workspace Chat. Chat is the assistant you use inside SteelEngine. A Hosted Chat runs one workflow for people outside the editor. It is one of the deployment surfaces alongside the API, MCP, and A2A.
When to Use It
Use a Hosted Chat when one workflow should answer people directly and you do not want to build a front end. The workflow reads the message from <start.input> and can read attached files from <start.files>. Every reply comes from the block outputs you select when you create the chat.
For a programmatic client, call the Execute Workflow endpoint instead. For other AI agents, publish an A2A agent.
Creating a Hosted Chat
- Open the workflow and click Deploy.
- Open the Hosted Chat tab.
- Enter the URL slug. It becomes
{{APP_URL}}/chat/<identifier>. - Enter a Title.
- Under Output, select the block outputs that the chat shows as the reply.
- Choose an Access control option (see below).
- Edit the Welcome message if you want. The default is "Hi there! How can I help you today?".
- Click Launch Chat.
SteelEngine deploys the workflow as part of this step, so the workflow does not need to be deployed first. The chat opens in a new tab as soon as it is live. Only users who can administer the workflow can create, edit, or delete its Hosted Chat.
The slug may contain lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens, up to 100 characters. It must be unique across all Hosted Chats. The field checks availability as you type.
Access Control
Access control decides who can open the chat:
- Public: Anyone with the URL can chat.
- Password: Visitors enter a password before the chat loads. Click Generate to create a 24-character password, then Copy it to share. When you edit the chat later, leave the field empty to keep the current password.
- Email: Visitors enter an email address. If it is in your Allowed emails list, SteelEngine emails them a 6-digit code. The code expires after 15 minutes and allows 5 attempts. Add full addresses or whole domains such as
@example.com. - SSO: Visitors sign in with your organization's SSO and must match the Allowed SSO emails list. This option appears only when your operator has enabled SSO.
A public Hosted Chat runs the workflow with the publisher's permissions and bills the workspace for every message. Treat the URL like a credential, or add a password or email check.
What Visitors See
The chat page shows your title and welcome message. Visitors type a message or attach files up to 10 MB each. The reply streams in as the workflow runs. Each page load starts a new conversation. Reloading the page clears the history on screen.
Visitors can also use voice input. A voice session lasts up to 1 minute and is billed to the publisher. See Voice Input for costs. Voice controls are hidden when the operator has not configured speech-to-text.
Every message is a chat run in the workflow's logs. Filter the Logs page by the chat trigger to review them.
Updating and Deleting
Open the Hosted Chat tab again to change any setting. Click Update to save. Updating also redeploys the workflow, so visitors get the latest version. The Live at link under the URL field opens the running chat.
Click Delete to remove the chat. The URL stops working for everyone immediately. The workflow itself stays deployed.
Limits
- One Hosted Chat per workflow.
- Attachments are limited to 10 MB per file.
- Each message runs as a synchronous execution, so the plan's sync execution time limit applies.
- Each message counts against the workspace's execution rate limit and credit usage.